The director who bowed out of the 'Star Wars’ spinoff says he left because fans aren’t nice

Rumors that director Josh
Trank's time might be over in that galaxy far, far away came to
the surface when he was a
shocking no-show at the "Star Wars Celebration" in
April.

Pegged to direct a spinoff of the saga, his absence at the fan
convention started whispers that he might get booted off the
project. That was then confirmed two weeks after "Celebration"
when
Lucasfilm announced that Trank was no longer the director of
their anthology film.

Trade papers The Hollywood Reporter and Variety made it sound
like Trank — who is the director of the upcoming "Fantastic Four”
reboot — was fired due to
“erratic” behavior on the set of “Four” and that the director
had a rift with its co-writer/producer Simon Kinder, who is
also a producer on the “Star Wars” spinoff. However Trank, in his
first interview addressing the matter, told the
L.A. Times that he wasn't fired.

Trank said he walked away from the "Star Wars" universe because
of the criticism he's taken from the “Fantastic Four” fan
community.

“I want to do something original after this because I’ve been
living under public scrutiny, as you’ve seen, for the last four
years of my life,” Tank told the L.A. Times, referring to his
time making "Fantastic Four.” “And it’s not healthy for me right
now in my life. I want to do something that’s below the radar.”

Part of that “public scrutiny” was the decision to
change the race of the The Human Torch, which will be played
by Michael B. Jordan (“Fruitvale Station”).

Trank also denies the
allegations that he was erratic on the set of “Fantastic
Four.”

Kinberg came to Trank's defense in the Times story: “This, I
would say, is particularly cruel. I haven’t really seen this
level of vehemence against a filmmaker. And it’s surreal and
unfair."

Trank had spent a year developing the “Star Wars” spinoff,
Lucasfilm is currently looking for his replacement as it
continues to develop the project.

Filmmakers having to deal with passionate fans is nothing new,
but since the advent of the Internet, and particularly social
media, they have become susceptible to the positive and negative
feedback on a more intimate level.

Joss
Whedon.AP Images

Following the release of
"Avengers: Age of Ultron," Joss Whedon shut down his Twitter
account. Whedon
told BuzzFeed it was because he was going to start writing a
new project, but the
death threats were probably a motivation to stop looking
at his feed as well.

And this quote from George Lucas — perhaps one of the longest
sufferers of fan backlash — following the sale of Lucasfilm
showed up in Vanity Fair’s June
cover story on “The Force Awakens” and mirrors Trank's
attitude:

“It was fine before the Internet… But now . . . it’s gotten very
vicious and very personal. You just say, ‘Why do I need to do
this?’”